The True Tea Party

16MM COMMERCIAL STUDENT AWARDS for MCVITIES

Even in Wonderland, McVities is at the heart of every tea party!

McVities Advert Initial AD Concept: Amy Robson

SYNPOSIS

Down in Wonderland, Hatter is becoming most dissatisfied with the state of their biscuit selection. "No time, no time, no time for imitation" cries out the White Rabbit, agreeing with his friend. Luckily, Alice has arrived, bringing with her the unmistakably original: McVities. In saving the Tea Party, Alice has also saved the World of Wonders itself.

PRE-PRODUCTION & FILMING

This project has been some much fun to work on creatively. Being able to use a beloved British novel as the inspiration for an advert for another national treasure was such an exciting process! The director and I worked closely throughout pre-production in order to conceptualise how the tea party was going to be formed and what the general aesthetic was going to be.

As producer, the biggest and most exciting challenge in this project was the research into the public domain and original Alice in Wonderland illustrations. Being that is has been over 40 years since the books publication in 1907, meant that the first visual iterations and book descriptions are now free to use by the public. This gave the director and I a basis to work off in terms of costume and colour.

Getting permission to film in Preston Parks Winter Conservatory was also such a treat and brought the visuals to life even more! Liaising with Beka at the park, I was able to secure use of the conservatory for filming on a day that the building was not open to the public. This ensured clean audio and visuals for the entirety of the shoot.

Prop and costume sourcing was also a major factor into ensuring the visuals of the advert. As stated the public domain issuing meant we were able to work off the original designs of each character. So, for example, we made Alice have her actual yellow dress and pinafore and made the Mad Hatters costume similar to that of his first illustration. These decisions ended up actually being one of the best choices for the advert, as they made each character stand out in the frame and leaned into the "unmistakably original" tagline we were aiming for for McVities.

Working with Northbound Productions on the set design, the director and I were able to curate a tea party setting that felt super whimsical and nostalgic. Sourcing different crockery and other table dressings alongside the custom tablecloths created a set which was sightly overcrowded and 'mad'.

25mm KODAK FILM:

This module was the first time any of us had the chance to work with analogue film. While the 2nd AC was in charge of loading and unloading the film, keeping the schedule and shot lengths consistent and to a minimum was my role on set. Throughout filming we only had 10 minutes of film to work with, so blocking out each shot meticulously in rehearsals and before filming was super important.

Watch the Advert Here:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/dfa984_17f80f4bf4014b699926306576d84918/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Crew

Director: Jack Fowler

Producer/1st AD: Holly Hadfield

Cinematographer and lead Camera: Jack Fowler

2nd Assistant Camera: Adrian Everest

Camera Operator: Jack Fowler

Sound and Foley: Carys Jay Roberts

Editor and Colour Grader: Jack Fowler

Cast

The Mad Hatter: Arun Graves-Kochhar

Alice: Izzy Sander

The White Rabbit: Kai Jagpal

The Cheshire Cat: Paige Dyson

The Brown Mouse: Daniel Cooper